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Sheriff Kyle of Deadeye, Nevada, is headed east to the nation's capital. Like Dennis Weaver in the television series McCloud, Kyle's about to discover that the law can be even wilder in the big city than in the Wild West. It's a fact that hits home when he's the one accused . . . of murder. Kyle's come to the city to give a report to his senator on the misdeeds of Nevada's filthy rich copper kings. But before he has a chance, he's knocked unconscious, later coming to alongside his senatornow dead, with Kyle's knife imbedded in the corpse. Welcome to Washington D.C., where corruption, intrigue and murder are all in a day's work. Kyle's got no alibi, no memory, and apparently doesn't have a prayer . . . unless he can find a way to outwit, outfox and outmaneuver the masters of deception and double-crosses.Much like Kyle, L. Ron Hubbard was born and bred on the western frontier and made his way east to explore and experience life in Washington, D.C. But unlike the sheriff, Hubbard enjoyed his time in the capital, where he went to college at Georgetown. He came to know the ins and outs of the city as well as he knew the arroyos and canyons of the west, giving him the kind of insights he needed to write stories like Killers Law. Also includes the mysteries They Killed Him Dead, in which a respected homicide detective solves a murder several times over, only to be proved wrong again and again, to the amusement of his fellow cops; Mad Dog Murder, the story of a patrol officer who dreams of joining the homicide squad, and finds that the ticket to advancementand romancemay be a Pekinese dog; and The Blow Torch Murders, in which every criminal in town is eager to turn himself in . . . and the reason is a real killer....some of the most carefully and beautifully crafted trade paperbacks of our time. Mystery Scene

Insurance investigator Brent Calloway may be too hard-boiled to crack a smile, but he'll go to any length to crack a case. As tough, terse and tireless as insurance man Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity, Calloway's about to go to extremes to see to it that one ship makes it safely from Hawaii to the mainland. Going undercover and posing as ruthless killer Spike O'Brien, Calloway quickly discovers that on this ship nothing is what it seems, and no one can be trusted. With so much insurance money at stake, and the whole crew apparently in on the scam, this could end up being a voyage to the bottom of the sea. . . . And when the real Spike O'Brien shows up, it's Calloway who'll need a good insurance policy. Because life is cheap when the stakes are so highon a ship of lies bearing a False Cargo.A veteran sailor who had voyaged long and far, L. Ron Hubbard knew well the life at sea. He once wrote in his journal: ';There is something magnificently terrible about a savage sea in the unwholesome green of half-dawn. . . . The ship is an unreal, fragile thing, full of strange groans, and engine and sails are dwarfed in their puny power when matched to all the countless horsepower in wave and wind and current. The whole world is an awesome threat. Alone, wet, hungry, hand cramped upon a tiller, a sailor knows more truth in those hours than all mankind in his millions of years.' Also includes the sea adventure Grounded, in which a Royal Air Force lieutenant loses a friend and tarnishes his reputation, and sets out in search of redemption . . . no matter the price.

Detective Terry Lane is a standout homicide cop who thought he'd seen it all . . . until now. As tough as Kevin Costner as Eliot Ness of The Untouchablesand just as incorruptibleLane has seen the darkest side of human behavior. But he's never seen a murder spree like this, targeting the wealthy, the powerful and the privileged. For the evidence is clear: the killers have not emerged from the seamy underside of the city . . . but from six feet under it. They are the walking dead, spreading terror and showing no mercy.Following a trail of drugs, blackmail, and the twisted clues of a seductive nightclub singer, Detective Lane will have to think outside the boxor he could end up inside one, buried alive.In 1934, while living in New York, the heart of the publishing industry, Hubbard struck up a friendship with the city's medical examinera relationship that started his education in undetectable crime and provided him with authoritative clinical background for his detective stories.';A rollicking horror yarn [that] taps into the current craze for zombies. . . . heart-pounding.' Publishers Weekly*An International Book Awards Winner

He was the last man Lars Marlin had expected to see in Rio de Janeiro- and it took all of his willpower not to slay him on the spot.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Steve Craig is in one hell of a mess. Being accused of murder is bad enough, but the local police are convinced he's killed his own father. Alfred Hitchcock couldn't have conceived a more diabolical plot for Cary Grant . . . and now, for Steve Craig, the plot is about to get down and dirty.Steve's safe from the cops as long as he stays aboard his Navy shipbut the word safe isn't in his vocabulary. He slips off the vessel and vanishes into the seamy underside of the city, determined to find out who took his father's life . . . even if it means risking his own.He follows a trail of smoke and mirrors and sudden violence to the Brass Keys to Murder. With them, Steve will seek to unlock the terrible truth behind his father's death . . . and an astonishing secret that will change his lifeand that of the woman he lovesforever.Ron knew well the life at sea and the world surrounding it. Not only was he the son of a naval officer, he traveled back and forth across the Pacific, plied the China coast in a working schooner and commanded an expedition aboard a four-masted ship to the Caribbean. He walked the waterfronts of countless ports, sharing stories with the colorfuland often shadycharacters inhabiting them. Originally published in April 1935 under the pen name Michael Keith, Brass Keys to Murder is a direct result of those adventures.

Kurt Reid may be innocent of the murder he's charged with (and of grand larceny, for that matter), but he's got no time to be thrown in jail and defend himself. Instead, Reid flees to pre-Communist China and Shanghai, the exotic city of mystery and death.

Imagine that your father is one of New York City's top gangsters, and that you want nothing to do with him or his criminal empire. Now imagine he's been murdered . . . and the only person who gives a damn is you. Meet Mat Lawrence, a stand-up guythink Gary Cooperwho's got one thing on his mind: revenge. The last place Mat wants to go is back to New York, but that's where the killers are, and he won't stop until they're dead . . . or he is. And there's only one man who can help him track them down: his father's criminal attorneythe Mouthpiece. But there's more than a desire for revenge at play in this deadly game. When Mat's old man went down, a million dollars went missing. Put it all togethera cold-blooded murder and a cool million goneand it's a pretty good bet that the one thing Mat is sure to find is some serious heat.Mouthpiece was originally published in the September, 1934, edition of Thrilling Detective. That same year, as the youngest writer ever to serve as president of the New York Chapter of the American Fiction Guild, L. Ron Hubbard sought to promote greater accuracy in the writing of detective and mystery stories. To that end he invited the coroner to speak to the Guild members over lunch. He later recounted that ';they would go away from the luncheon the weirdest shade of green.' But, we can assume, they also went away better informed. Years later, expanding his studies in the area, Hubbard became a special officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. Also includes the tales of mystery, Flame City, the story of one man's harrowing attempt to save his father and the city from a serial arsonist; Calling Squad Cars!, in which a police dispatcher goes to extraordinary lengths to bring down a gang of bank robbers after he is accused of working with them; and Grease Spot, the story of a former racecar driver, now the owner of a wrecking company, who plays fast and loose with the police . . . and may have to pay for it. * A Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award Winner

In The Great Escape and Papillon, Steve McQueen embodied the tough guy on the run from captivity and injustice. But when it comes to toughness, McQueen is following in the daring and determined footsteps of Captain Spar. Wrongfully accused, Spar has been condemned to suffer the brutality of the guards and the conditions on Devil's Island. But they haven't broken his will, and now, escaping, he has one mission in life: revenge. Spar's out to kill the man who put him into the devil's hands. But he'll have to take on a gallery of rogues who are as treacherous as the waters of the Caribbean. Pressure is rising and a storm is brewing. But even in the face of a natural disaster, Spar discovers that nothing is more volatile than human natureas temptation and danger are about to collide with Hurricane force.In 1937 L. Ron Hubbard wrote to one of his editors: ';You might have noticed that I am intensely wary of becoming any kind of a story specialist. I have sold the gamut of types: air war, air, western, detective, love, terror. . . . My one passion is to build a name for variety. . . . I like my freedom. I fight hard for independent individualism. I love to tie into a yarn and make it blaze in print.' Hubbard's passion for writing, creativity and individualism certainly blazes across the page in stories like Hurricane.';Hurricane will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end as it unfolds.' Mommy's Favorite Things * An International Book Awards Finalists